by Elicia Hyder
“How’s it coming?” I asked after moment.
She didn’t answer right away. Then she let out a frustrated sigh. “I c-can’t manage the b-buttons.”
“Want some help?”
“Please.”
When I turned, she was holding my short-sleeved black shirt closed around her. Watery blood drizzled from her neck down her cleavage. My hands started at the top button, and I refused to let my eyes drift down the slit at the top. But it was hard.
“I c-can’t stop sh-shaking,” she said with a shiver.
I buttoned the second button. “It’s probably adrenaline. And your blood pressure might be out of whack.”
“She needs water,” Reuel said.
“That too.” I moved to the third button. “How’s the pain?”
“S-starting to go n-numb.”
“That’s probably a blessing. We need to keep an eye out for signs of infection.” I buttoned the fourth button.
She looked around as much as she could without moving her neck. “It’s a m-mirror maze?”
“Looks like it.”
“I hate m-mirror mazes.”
“Me too.” My fingers worked the last button. “Hold on.” I went and picked up my extra pair of socks. Then I knelt down in front of her. “They’ll be too big, but it’s better than being barefoot.” She held onto my head as I slipped the socks over her feet.
“Th-thank you.”
I stood and smiled, letting my eyes drift down the length of her. “You look a little Risky Business, but it will do until we can find something more your size. Think you can walk?”
She nodded, then winced as the skin around her neck pulled against the collar.
I put my sword on my back and draped Cassiel’s bag across my chest. Glancing at my wrist for the time, I realized my watch was gone. “Shit. I loved that watch.”
“Why d-didn’t your man purse b-burn up?” Fury asked.
“It’s a satchel.” I frowned. “And it didn’t burn up because it’s from Eden, just like our clothes.”
“What’s in it?” Reuel asked, offering Fury his arm.
“No idea. For emergencies only Cassiel said.” We started walking forward? Maybe? I couldn’t really tell. “She told me it could get her kicked out of Eden.”
Reuel’s head pulled back. “What could it be?”
I turned my palms up just as I walked into an angled mirror. I swore and rubbed the spot where my forehead had bounced off it.
“You all r-right?” Fury asked, her teeth still chattering.
“I’m fine.” I put my hand on her forehead. The adrenaline should’ve left her system already. She didn’t feel feverish. “Are you cold?”
“Fr-freezing.”
I looked at Reuel. “Are you?”
He shook his head. “Maybe it’s the burns.”
“Maybe it’s this p-place. Why is it so d-dark?”
“Oh.” I opened my hand, calling fire into my palm again. It sparked to life and lit up the mirrors around us.
Fury smiled, impressed.
I started walking again, using the fire and my sword to navigate the path ahead. Movement caught my eye to the left. “Did anybody see that?”
“S-see what?” Fury asked.
I continued creeping forward. “Not sure.”
In one of the mirrors, I saw Reuel’s face whip to the right.
“What was it?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” Reuel and Fury were right on my heels.
A sliver of ghostly white appeared along the edge of the mirrors. I stopped walking so suddenly Reuel caught my shoulder to keep from running me over.
“What is it?” he asked.
I pointed with my sword. It was low, knee-height from the ground. About five inches tall and an inch wide with a black fringe going down the left side.
Fury grabbed the back of my shirt with her free hand as the sliver of white slowly widened. Two eyes, tilted sideways, appeared. They blinked.
“Warren.” Fury’s fist twisted my shirt.
I moved the flame closer to the face. One of the small eyes flared green.
It was a child, peeking around one of the mirrors.
He ducked out of view, and I said the F-word. “Creepy demon kids are the worst. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
I quickened our pace, and after every few turns, the boy ran past one of the mirrors. Like it was a game. A game I knew in my bones we were probably going to lose.
We walked for what felt like eternity, until finally, a shimmer of something purple flickered in the mirrors. I turned right and headed for it. The purple light grew brighter…brighter…
“Damn it,” I said, letting my flame extinguish.
Fury’s teeth were chattering louder. “It’s the-the s-s-steps again.”
I turned in a slow circle. “Reuel, what if we destroy the mirrors?”
“Want me to try?”
“Yeah.” I reached for Fury and pulled her against my chest, wrapping my arms tight around her. Partly to protect her from shattering glass. Partly to try to stop her shaking. Her body was ice cold. “God, you’re freezing.” I laid my head against hers.
“I already t-told you th-that,” she said, shivering violently against me.
Beside me, Reuel opened and closed his fists a few times. Then he rubbed his palms together. Taking a deep breath, his hands shot forward, releasing a wave of energy so powerful that it rippled the air.
Looking over my shoulder as far as I could without turning Fury toward the imminent blast, I watched the mirrors wobble. They twisted and turned and bent backward as the force pushed them down. But they did not shatter.
Then as violently as they were pushed back, they catapulted upright volleying all the energy right back at us. Reuel turned, shielding us from the blast. Still, it blew us all forward, and we narrowly missed crashing through the steps.
When I rolled off Fury, she was crying again and holding one of her wrists.
“Are you all right?” I asked, concerned.
She covered her face with her arms and cursed over and over.
“I’m sorry,” Reuel said.
“Not your fault. Geez, it was my idea. Didn’t expect that to happen.” My eyes drifted toward the stairs. “Fury, maybe it’s a sign for you to stay here. Reuel can take you back, and I can go on—”
“No.” She rolled onto her side and forced herself up. “I’m fine.” She sniffed back tears. “L-let’s go.” When she moved to get up, her arm gave out, and I caught her before she landed on her face.
I stood, pulling her to her feet again. While she held onto me to steady herself, I looked at her arms. The right one was dripping blood. I turned it toward the light from the steps for a clearer look.
“The cuff t-twisted when we fell.”
I tried tearing off the hem of my T-shirt to make a sling. I failed. “Damn indestructible fabric,” I muttered. “Can you hold it elevated? We need to slow the bleeding.”
Reuel picked up his blue shirt off the ground, twisted it into a thick rope, and tied it around her shoulders, so it didn’t rub her neck. She bent her arm and he tightened the shirt, trapping her forearm against her chest.
“Th-thank you.” Her teeth still rattled so hard I worried they might crack.
Reuel curled his arm around her back.
I shined the flame toward the mirrors again. “Shall we try this again?”
“We’re right behind you,” Reuel said.
This time, I dragged my sword along the right wall of mirrors, hoping if we could stay oriented, we’d have easier time getting out. The tip of the metal scraping the glass bounced a faint, shrill screech around the room.
Keeping contact with the mirror led us in a different direction—I was pretty sure, anyway. We rounded one corner, then another, then another.
“Warren, s-stop,” Fury said.
I stopped walking, but the sound continued. No. It was a different sound altogether. A piercing chirp. Or chirps. Millio
ns of them. “What the—”
A heavy hand slammed into my shoulder, buckling my knees. I whirled around. Reuel shrugged. “It was a spider.”
“No. It was a c-cricket.” Fury’s eyes were frantically searching the floor. Another cricket jumped onto my white shirt, and I brushed it away. She screamed, wildly flailing her arms, when one jumped in her face.
Before I could find it amusing, crickets swarmed us. Leaping onto our clothes. Flying into our hair. Reuel inhaled one, doubling him over coughing. The majority of the bugs were concentrated on Fury. Creeping, crawling, covering so much of her bare skin, she almost disappeared into the darkness.
I put my sword back into its scabbard and grabbed her shoulders. “Fury!”
The whites of her eyes flashed in the dark.
“Are you afraid of crickets?”
She couldn’t even respond.
“Close your eyes.”
Her eyes snapped shut.
I lit a fire in both my palms, then cupped my hands together and lowered them toward the ground. As I blew gently at the base of the flames, bright golden embers showered the ground around her feet. The bugs began to scatter. Reuel brushed countless crickets off her face, her body and her legs. He was pulling them out of her hair when I finished exterminating on the ground.
He cupped her face in his big hands. “It’s over. Open your eyes.”
She didn’t.
“Trust me,” he said.
Finally, her terrified eyes fluttered open.
“It’s over,” he said again.
I passed the flame to my left palm, holding it near her face. Her lips had a bluish tinge, and they were beginning to crack. “This place is subjective, remember? You’re the only human here. It’s projecting your fears.”
With a blink, her eyes changed from afraid to surprised.
“Fury, what else are you afraid of?”
“I d-don’t know.”
She wasn’t lying. I suspected Fury kept her fears so buried even she didn’t know what they were.
“Why are you so cold?” I asked, knowing if we didn’t fix that soon, hypothermia would become a real problem.
Her shoulders rose.
“Come on. Let’s keep moving.” Dragging the sword across the glass once more, we walked. With another turn, we started down a long, straight hallway. “This is definitely new. We haven’t been here before.” I took it as a good sign.
Far beyond the reach of my firelight, something moved. I gulped and slowed my steps. As we neared, the light bounced off two eyes. One of them was bright green. The boy was small. Maybe two or three years old. He had colorless skin and black hair…jet-black hair.
I stopped and reached back for Fury. My fingers couldn’t find her. When I glanced over my shoulder, she’d taken a step back, even from Reuel. She was shaking her head.
“Come on. You have to face him.” I held out my hand. She only looked at it. “Is it Jett?”
She visibly swallowed.
“Fury, Jett is a baby. He’s safe at home with John.” I stretched my hand farther. “You have to face him so we can pass.”
She inched forward and took my hand.
“Mommy?” The boy’s hollow voice sent a ripple of fear down my spine. “Mommy?”
“He’s not real,” I reminded her, or myself, I wasn’t sure.
Fury knelt down a few feet from him. “Jett?”
He shook his small head.
“Malak?” Reuel asked.
The boy shook his head again.
“Rogan?” Fury asked.
The boy’s eyes narrowed to evil slits. He shook his head a third time, smiling. Baring pointed teeth dripping with black blood.
Fury sucked in a brave breath and reached for him. I raised my sword. But she didn’t flinch as he ran into her arms…and vanished.
She fell back onto the ground. I knelt beside her. “You all right?”
Her head nodded, but she was anything but all right.
I pulled her ponytail off her shoulder, as it was getting matted in the blood oozing from her throat. “He’s not evil, Fury. You don’t need to worry.”
“Don’t you worry about Iliana?” she asked.
Truthfully, I didn’t. “No. I know how she’s being raised. And I know you’ll be a good mother to him.”
“How?”
“Because you care too much not to be.”
Her eyes sobered. “What if he’s part of the fallen?”
I looked at Reuel behind us.
“He isn’t,” he said, confidently. “I’m sure of it.”
“See?” I put my arm around her back. “You ready to keep moving?”
She nodded, and I pulled her to her feet.
Back along the side of the room, I continued to drag my sword across the right-side mirrors. It seemed we walked for miles. Hours, for sure. But, thankfully, we encountered nothing else sinister in the twisted maze.
Not that Fury would care any longer. Her pace was slowing, and her breaths were dry and ragged. Funny thing about fear, it can’t exist without attention. Without a heart that cares enough to race. Fury was fading. Fast.
I stopped and offered Reuel my sword. “Wanna switch places for a bit?”
He hesitated, and I realized why. Fury wasn’t well; I’d only make her worse.
I nodded.
“We have to get out of here soon,” he said.
“I know.”
Fury stumbled.
Without asking, he scooped her up in his big arms. She didn’t argue, which was the most alarming sign of all. After a few more turns, the room brightened slightly. I looked back at Reuel, and Fury was fast asleep.
I stopped again. “She’s afraid of the dark.”
Reuel gazed down at her peaceful face. Her lips were still blue, but against Reuel, the shaking had stopped a little. I wondered if part of it was fear. “She’s so strong.”
She drew in a shallow breath.
“We need to hurry, Warren.”
Navigating the maze was both easier and harder with the light. Harder because now even our reflections had reflections, and each mirror looked like its own fractaled hallway. But it was easier because we no longer needed the fire, and I could clearly see which mirror’s we’d already passed because my sword had etched a crooked line in the glass.
I turned to the right. My sword etched the glass.
“Reuel, move back.”
Reuel backed up as far as he could. I gripped the sword’s hilt with both hands and swung it as hard as I could at my face.
The mirror shattered in a million pieces.
Reuel howled with joy. I raised the sword over my head in victory before driving it through the next mirror. The room slowly darkened again. I stopped.
“What’s happening?” Fury asked, her voice weak and small.
Reuel kissed her forehead. “Go back to sleep. Warren’s getting us out of here.”
“I knew he would,” she mumbled and snugged her face into his chest.
I continued crashing through the walls until I saw light—bright yellow light, not purple—and the end of the mirrored tunnel. “Holy shit, we made it,” I said, slamming the sword’s blade against another one.
Together, Reuel and I jogged toward the exit, and when we reached it, we both stopped. Wide-eyed and worried.
“Where are we?” he asked.
“Ket Nhila.” I felt sick. “The Bad Lands.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Fury,” I said, jostling her face. “Fury, wake up.”
She’d been jerking and moaning in her sleep, likely delirious from dehydration. Her lips were dry and cracked, her eyes were shadowed and sunken, and her skin was taut and ashy. We’d piled every blanket we could find on top of her, and thankfully, color was starting to creep back into her cheeks.
“It’s probably better if she’s asleep.” Reuel nudged my arm. “Just do it.”
“You do it.”
He held up his hand. “My fingers are like sa
usages, and I don’t know how.”
“I don’t know how.”
“You know more than me.”
I closed my eyes. “This. This is my hell.”
“Bwooock, bwock, bwock.”
“You’re picking up bad habits from her,” I said, pointing at his face.
He grinned and pushed the IV pole toward me. “Tick tock. She’s dying, Warren.”
“You’re such an asshole.” I pulled the rolling stool over to her bedside. Then I stretched out her arm on the bed. Luckily, her veins were dark blue beneath her skin. I put on a pair of surgical gloves, then ripped open the IV start kit and pulled out the tourniquet.
“How’d you learn this?” Reuel asked as I wrapped the blue band around her upper arm.
“Claymore made us take a class in combat medicine. We had to be able to start an IV to pass.” I swabbed the inside of her elbow with an alcohol wipe.
“Is that the class where you passed out?” he asked.
I looked up and frowned. “Did my father tell you that?”
He smiled.
“I didn’t pass out. I got a little light headed. That’s not the same thing.”
“He said you fell off your chair.”
I huffed. “Will you shut up and let me do this?”
His lips pressed together.
I picked up the smallest needle I could find in the drawer and tore open its plastic wrap. I found the vein with my fingertip, then bent over her arm. I took a deep breath and moved the needle close to her skin. My hand was shaking, and stars speckled my vision, so I stopped and shook out my hand.
“You can do this,” Reuel said.
I rolled my eyes. “Now you’re going to be supportive?”
“I could go back to mocking you.”
“Be quiet.” I bent over her arm again and slid the needle into it. I missed the vein. “Shit.” I pulled it out and pressed my finger against her skin. “She’s so dehydrated, I’m not sure I can do it.” I took a few deep breaths and punctured the skin again. Blood filled the catheter. I let out a massive exhale. “It’s in.”
Reuel clapped. “I knew you could do it.”
